Next things next.
This is the first trip I have been on that seemed doomed from the get go; but it didn't go to shit and I had a great time. This is one of those posts that might be read with vitriol but I assure you that if you read it with a tone of skeptic humor you will get a better story.
I left for LA on June19th, I got about three hours of sleep and got onboard the plane at 6:15. It was crowded but thankfully my row of three only had two people in it. So we had a little extra room. I got into LA right on time and met up with my friend from high school and we drove around Silverlake and Echo Park looking for a place to grab an early lunch. Took some pictures in Echo Park, which I posted a couple days ago.
On the twentieth I went to a coffee shop called Chango, had a cup of joe and walked back into my friends at about 9:00 am. We had this conversation:
Me: Morning, Sunshine.
Her: I feel terrible.
Me: Yeah you don't sound so good.
Her: I coughed up green phlegm in the shower.
Me: That sounds bad, like bronchitis, you should go to the doctor.
Her: To the doctor? Do you think so?
Me: (nodding) Yes! Unless you normally cough up green phlegm.
She went to the doctor and got diagnosed with bronchitis. I ate lunch at a Mexican joint called Rodeo Mexican Grill (which was pretty serviceable). We had Indian for dinner and I spent a lot of time sitting outside on her patio reading One Hundred Years of Solitude.
I realized at that point that I have changed a lot in the last four or five years. The act of flying to LA from Boston would have seemed to merit some special attention but I was pretty content to just sit and read. I think I am either profound in my use of time or the most boring person I know.
On the 21st I took a train ride up from LA to Salinas, CA. Gorgeous, everybody should do that trip once.
I stayed the night Monterey. I have to admit that I was pretty disinterested in Monterey. It seemed awfully touristy to me.
June 22nd, the trip into the monastery.
I was meant to be staying at a Buddhist monastery called Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. It is a Zen Buddhist temple in the Soto Zen Japanese school of Buddhism. I was going to be a work student. So I would go and take part in the services (for lack of a better term) then work all day and then take part in afternoon zazen and then evening zazen. The whole thing was going to be an awesome experience.
We go into Tassajara that night at about 7:30 or 8:00. The sky was already thick with smoke:
But we went in anyway. I got settled in my cabin for the night. But I didn't sleep well. I was tossing and turning waking up every couple of hours getting use to the sound of the woods rather than the sounds of the city. I got about two or three hours of sleep there then woke up at 5:00 when the morning bell was sounded for morning zazen.
That was great, the morning service was beautiful.
I showed up to my work assignment, weed whacking the path to, and around, the solar panels that power the place. I was there for two hours when Devin Patel came up and we had this conversation:
Devin: Hey, we are going to evacuate the guests and I didn't want to forget about you.
Me: Thanks.
Devin: Have you had a chance to use the bath house yet?
Me: No I just got here last night.
Devin: Oh that's too bad. Well why don't you go get cleaned up and packed and get ready to go then. Go ahead and take a bath at the house, it would be a shame to come out here and not get to take a sauna.
Me: okay.
Devin: Just do me a favor and don't tell anybody about this please. You are actually the first person to know. I really didn't want to forget about you.
I tromped back down the hill grabbed a clean set of clothes and took a shower.
Tassajara has a pretty swanky bath house. It is situated on a natural hot spring. So you shower and get clean and go sit in the hot spring bath, which is really oily because of the sulfur, and then you go and sauna and cold plunge. I hate these things though. I don't like sitting in a sauna not doing anything, I have never liked it. I would rather sit and read on a deck than sit and steam in a sauna. I know people love them, but I am not that guy.
They made the official announcement after lunch and we given the opportunity to stay if we wanted to. Here were the criteria for staying:
You had to leave the Sheriff's Department your next of kin, emergency phone information, and you dentist's name and phone number.
They had me at dentist. It became a really easy decision for me when the Sheriff said that. He also added something about my life being in peril. But I was still trying to remember my dentist name and phone number. I left that afternoon after raking a bunch of leaves out from around the buildings. Here are the pictures of the departure trip. The orange line just above the mountain top is the glow of the fire.
I left with a friend of mine from Providence and we stayed at their family's house in Los Gatos. Twenty hours in the monastery. That was it.
Tomorrow I will update the rest of the trip which includes two days in San Francisco and one day in Marin County up around Stinson Beach.
More to come.
This is the first trip I have been on that seemed doomed from the get go; but it didn't go to shit and I had a great time. This is one of those posts that might be read with vitriol but I assure you that if you read it with a tone of skeptic humor you will get a better story.
I left for LA on June19th, I got about three hours of sleep and got onboard the plane at 6:15. It was crowded but thankfully my row of three only had two people in it. So we had a little extra room. I got into LA right on time and met up with my friend from high school and we drove around Silverlake and Echo Park looking for a place to grab an early lunch. Took some pictures in Echo Park, which I posted a couple days ago.
On the twentieth I went to a coffee shop called Chango, had a cup of joe and walked back into my friends at about 9:00 am. We had this conversation:
Me: Morning, Sunshine.
Her: I feel terrible.
Me: Yeah you don't sound so good.
Her: I coughed up green phlegm in the shower.
Me: That sounds bad, like bronchitis, you should go to the doctor.
Her: To the doctor? Do you think so?
Me: (nodding) Yes! Unless you normally cough up green phlegm.
She went to the doctor and got diagnosed with bronchitis. I ate lunch at a Mexican joint called Rodeo Mexican Grill (which was pretty serviceable). We had Indian for dinner and I spent a lot of time sitting outside on her patio reading One Hundred Years of Solitude.
I realized at that point that I have changed a lot in the last four or five years. The act of flying to LA from Boston would have seemed to merit some special attention but I was pretty content to just sit and read. I think I am either profound in my use of time or the most boring person I know.
On the 21st I took a train ride up from LA to Salinas, CA. Gorgeous, everybody should do that trip once.
I stayed the night Monterey. I have to admit that I was pretty disinterested in Monterey. It seemed awfully touristy to me.
June 22nd, the trip into the monastery.
I was meant to be staying at a Buddhist monastery called Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. It is a Zen Buddhist temple in the Soto Zen Japanese school of Buddhism. I was going to be a work student. So I would go and take part in the services (for lack of a better term) then work all day and then take part in afternoon zazen and then evening zazen. The whole thing was going to be an awesome experience.
We go into Tassajara that night at about 7:30 or 8:00. The sky was already thick with smoke:
But we went in anyway. I got settled in my cabin for the night. But I didn't sleep well. I was tossing and turning waking up every couple of hours getting use to the sound of the woods rather than the sounds of the city. I got about two or three hours of sleep there then woke up at 5:00 when the morning bell was sounded for morning zazen.
That was great, the morning service was beautiful.
I showed up to my work assignment, weed whacking the path to, and around, the solar panels that power the place. I was there for two hours when Devin Patel came up and we had this conversation:
Devin: Hey, we are going to evacuate the guests and I didn't want to forget about you.
Me: Thanks.
Devin: Have you had a chance to use the bath house yet?
Me: No I just got here last night.
Devin: Oh that's too bad. Well why don't you go get cleaned up and packed and get ready to go then. Go ahead and take a bath at the house, it would be a shame to come out here and not get to take a sauna.
Me: okay.
Devin: Just do me a favor and don't tell anybody about this please. You are actually the first person to know. I really didn't want to forget about you.
I tromped back down the hill grabbed a clean set of clothes and took a shower.
Tassajara has a pretty swanky bath house. It is situated on a natural hot spring. So you shower and get clean and go sit in the hot spring bath, which is really oily because of the sulfur, and then you go and sauna and cold plunge. I hate these things though. I don't like sitting in a sauna not doing anything, I have never liked it. I would rather sit and read on a deck than sit and steam in a sauna. I know people love them, but I am not that guy.
They made the official announcement after lunch and we given the opportunity to stay if we wanted to. Here were the criteria for staying:
You had to leave the Sheriff's Department your next of kin, emergency phone information, and you dentist's name and phone number.
They had me at dentist. It became a really easy decision for me when the Sheriff said that. He also added something about my life being in peril. But I was still trying to remember my dentist name and phone number. I left that afternoon after raking a bunch of leaves out from around the buildings. Here are the pictures of the departure trip. The orange line just above the mountain top is the glow of the fire.
I left with a friend of mine from Providence and we stayed at their family's house in Los Gatos. Twenty hours in the monastery. That was it.
Tomorrow I will update the rest of the trip which includes two days in San Francisco and one day in Marin County up around Stinson Beach.
More to come.
zups:
what a beautiful place!! 